I first became involved with the Bloodhound system in 1967 at 390MU, RAF Seletar,
Singapore when I was employed in the 3rd Line bay servicing missile and LCP PCBs
from 33 and 65 Squadrons. Much against my wishes (overriding service
requirements – haven’t we all heard that at sometime) I was posted in 1968 to
‘E’ Flight, RAF North Luffenham to do the same job. As it turned out I only
remained there until September 1969 before undertaking a T87 TIR training course
at RAF Newton. My memories of Newton are ones of happy abandonment as the
social scene was quite full and very entertaining, we certainly didn’t let the
training get in the way of our enjoyment. Knowing that we were going to Cyprus
afterwards was just the icing on the cake. Charlie Jance, Brian Guy, Brian
Wells, Tony Bristol and Mick Kemp were all on the same course.

After a very brief visit to North Luffenham, I arrived at RAF Akrotiri en-route
to 112 Squadron in May 1970, Tony Elkin and Tony 'Ginge' Aldridge arrived about the
same time. I was billeted in the 112 block at Episkopi with Cos Corrie, Ginge,
Jock Dempsey, Paddy ?, Bernard Carling ('Barny Rubble'), Dave Boden, Jamie Mather,
Brian Wells, Tony Howlett and others I can't call to mind; about 12 of us in
all. The billet was at the top of the hill and 112 Squadron personnel had the
whole block to themselves, much to the vexation of the SWO. It took him about
six months after I arrived to get his own way and get us moved into a block
where he could keep an eye on us.

It was intended that all us new arrivals would take over from the personnel that
had come with the equipment from Woodhall Spa, they handed over after a period
of familiarisation and within six weeks were gone. I count myself very lucky
that the radar I worked in (MS1) was reliable, much more so than MS2 and MS3.
Within six more weeks our inexperience and unfamiliarity with the T87 showed up
as a very high equipment down time and unserviceablity. It was so bad that the
original crew were sent back for a few weeks to sort it out. As MS1 had
remained serviceable for the most part I gained the undeserved reputation as a
safe pair of hands; sheer good fortune really.

With experience it all came together at last and peace and calm descended on the
T87 crews. I worked in MS1 with Ginge, Ray Maitland, Dougie Cooper, Dave Boden
and Brian Guy and later, members of the RAAF; we made a good team.

In summer, our working day started about 0700 and finished by early afternoon
when the beach called. On normal days, once the daily checks were completed,
operations were carried out. This entailed starting up the two 210kVA Dormer
diesels, phasing them in and switching the power to the equipment, the mains
supply being insufficient and too unreliable for actual operations. The TIR was
then handed over to the control of the Engagement Controller (EC) in the LCP so
that live targets could be acquired and tracked. These exercises were repeated
day after day for several hours to enable the controllers to keep up to speed. The ECs were often squadron pilots on a break from flying duties but controlling
the missile section enabled them to keep up their flying hours.

The most exciting episode was during June 1971 when we were called out at dawn
to provide air defence cover as it was anticipated that the Arab/Israeli
confrontation could spread to other areas. Apparently an intercept of an Arab
radio message suggested that they were up to no good and were going to try to
involve other states in the ongoing conflict.
I got Ginge (LCP operator), Barney (telephonist) and myself from Episkopi to the
Parimali site 5 miles away within 10 minutes of the call out (if you’ve ever
driven ‘Happy Valley’ you would know that this was some feat). We had
communications up and running and the T87/LCP/missiles run up and serviceable
within the next 10 minutes. A few minutes later the EC arrived at a run as
Barney, in the telephone exchange, had informed him that we were operational.
He was somewhat surprised as he expected the Squadron to take an hour to be
manned.

Shortly the EC was informed of an unidentified aircraft that was approaching at
speed. The radar was directed to illuminate/track the target and the missile
was locked on. The engagement controller was within ten seconds of Bloodhound
launch when it was finally identified as a civil aircraft escaping from Egyptian
airspace. The EC was not amused since he would have been the first (and
presumably the last) to launch a Bloodhound in anger.

The story emerged later that the civil aircraft (Boeing 707) was on a scheduled
flight to Egypt when the trouble blew up. The Egyptian controller had informed
the pilot that as a state of war now existed any aircraft entering Egyptian
airspace was considered a potential enemy and would be shot down. Naturally
this message somewhat unnerved the pilot and he decided to seek the protection
of the nearest friendly airspace, Cyprus. As the aircraft was flying at 36,000
feet and therefore rather vulnerable to a SAM2 the pilot switched off his SSR,
turned though 180° and put the aircraft into a shallow dive to gain speed. This
was now the unidentified aircraft that was approaching at just below Mach 1
heading straight for RAF Akrotiri, hence the concern. The pilot had
underestimated his rate of approach to Cyprus airspace and only switched on the SSR, so the aircraft could be positively identified, at the last minute when
prompted by frantic calls from the ground controller.

After this episode a ‘Projection of Air Power’ demonstration was ordered to show
the world how good we were. A Vulcan demonstrated a bombing run off Episkopi by dropping 21
1000lb bombs into the sea at low level, unfortunately 3 bombs did not explode
and presumably remain on the seabed to this day. Witnessed by most of the
Squadron personnel I imagine.

During the winter, usually after Christmas for two months, we would watch the
waterspouts develop off the coast with the radar’s CCTV. Although they could
not be tracked as such the Doppler signature showed them to be travelling
between 30 to 60 knots. Occasionally one would come ashore and uproot anything
not nailed down leaving a layer of frost in its wake, although once ashore they
tended to collapse.
Despite the general dryness after the winter season we could gather fresh
mushrooms on the site for much of the year. They grew underground, pushing up
the soil like a mini molehill; you had to be careful as you picked so as not to
let the soil get in the gills. A small cooker in the billet came in for a lot
of use as the messing arrangements were on trial for a time. Meal tickets were
issued for each meal and one would be collected at the door of the mess as you
entered for your meal. Needless to same many meals were not taken and most
nights we went to ‘Halil’s’ or ‘The Romantic’ kebab restaurants in Limassol. At
the equivalent of 65p each for a slap-up feed and free wine (and a free four
fingers of five kings brandy at Halil’s, Halil used to treat us like his own
sons; what a guy) we could afford to snack throughout the day to afford the
night out. At the end of the trial period each unused ticket handed back was
paid back to us; so we went out to celebrate again at ‘Halil’s’.

I had a few weeks in May 1972 at RAF Aberporth with the Bloodhound firing unit;
a 112 missile was being sent over for a test firing and a 112 EC was to do the
honours. Several missiles were successfully launched, but not the 112 missile
as it had developed a fault in transit, so the EC pooped off someone else’s
missile. I had a wonderful time at Aberporth and took some leave before
returning to Cyprus.

I left 112 in November 1972 (after a suitable going away party in the New
Romantic, Halils being too small) for RAF Newton to instruct on T87 radar but
was back at 112 in October 1974 as part of the 'reforce' after the Turkish
invasion, finally leaving in December 1974.

While at Newton I had a few weeks at RAF Aberporth while the T87 was reinstalled
in a prepared site on the edge of the cliff. Having given a number of courses
and, together with Dougie Cooper, reworked the T87 training course down from 27
weeks to 19 weeks I was posted off Bloodhound to RAF Bishops Court, Northern
Ireland; what a reward. Drawing a veil over what was the worst two years of my
career in the RAF, I was unexpectedly posted to RAF Aberporth in1977.

I was to replace John Lancake on the T87. John had been one of my students on my
first training course at Newton and had been dumped in this post straight from
the course; the RAF never seemed to learn from past errors.

As the firing season at Aberporth ran from early May through to late September,
the equipment tended to be put on a care and maintenance basis for the
intervening period. The WO, John Dyball, decided that, as equipment
serviceability had been an issue in other years from May onwards, the equipment
would be maintained serviceable throughout the down period. By the first week
in May all the faults were cured, all the servicing completed, let firing
commence.

All the existing Bloodhound Squadrons sent personnel to Aberporth during the
firing season for the experience. Blessed with good weather the number of
missiles test fired reached a record that year and the Swiss came to test fire
theirs also. On one occasion a missile malfunctioned at launch. Looking out of
the rear doors of the radar I was presented with the frightening spectacle of an
erratic Bloodhound just breaking Mach 1 a few yards away skimming over the radar
aerials and rolling over and over with a booster failure. It never did come
back under control and had to be destroyed in flight.

Posted off Bloodhound in 1980 to finish my career at Locking as an instructor I
still had to field queries on Bloodhound although by 1986 these had all but
dried up. For me, the Bloodhound system gave me the best years of my career and
that last of the valve equipments, the T87, gave me the most enduring
memories of both frustration and satisfaction in equal parts.